"House Price Inflation" in CanadaIs the blindingly magnificent housing bubble in Canada running out of steam? Even the US housing bubble that imploded so spectacularly, pales by comparison. It's so big and so all-encompassing that even the Bank of Canada and ratings agencies publicly fret about the damage it might do to banks, and the entire financial system, when it meets its maker.

5 taken from Logan plane in precautionFive passengers experiencing flu-like symptoms aboard an Emirates flight originating in Dubai were escorted off the plane Monday afternoon by a team in full hazmat suits at Logan International Airport, and other passengers were kept on board for nearly three hours while officials assessed the situation.

Ukraine's Neo-Nazis Demand RespectThousands of Ukraine's neo-Nazis surrounded the parliament in Kiev demanding that the government honor Ukrainian paramilitary forces who fought for Adolf Hitler in World War II, another embarrassing reminder of the extremism unleashed by last February's U.S.-backed coup.

## Energy/resources ##Cash Is Gone:World's Most Expensive Oil Project Just Got More CostlyThe Kashagan oil field – the world's most expensive oil project – will face several more years of delays and cost overruns. The project's price tag, already north of $50 billion (other estimates say costs are much higher), will rise by an additional $4 billion as a consortium of international oil companies have to replace two 55-mile pipelines. The episode highlights the growing difficulty that oil majors are having at maintaining their worldwide production levels.

There are a number of ways the situation could play out, and this is one take. One prediction, seen here as well, is that it will create difficulties for tight oil production in the US. But shale drilling has been a loser from the get-go, and the industry is already mired in debt. It will collapse anyway, even without the help of lower oil prices. Also mentioned here is that cheaper oil will hinder the development of electric vehicles. It has always been my contention that the EV is an invention whose time never came. The argument for electric vehicles (same for hydrogen vehicles) is a simplistic dream which fails to perceive the indispensable role of oil in the manufacture and maintenance of EVs, in making their tires, and in the construction and maintenance of roads, without which all vehicles are worthless. The EV dream is of course an extension of the dream that we'll be able to run industrial/consumer civilization on renewables. -- RF

Seeking to overcome a shortfall that may reach 2 million tons within four years, companies including Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, Central Asia Metals Plc (CAML) and Nautilus Minerals Inc. (NUS) are using specialized microorganisms to extract copper from previously unusable ore, sending robots a mile below the sea to tap rich deposits and recovering the metal from decades-old dump sites in Kazakhstan.

WMT cuts sales outlook for fiscal 2015Wal-Mart Stores Inc cut its full-year sales growth forecast, hurt by a stronger dollar and a bigger-than-expected impact from the cut in the government food stamp program last year.